What started off as 2 chapter event seems to have taken 4... Anyways! As promised, though maybe a bit early, here is the next segment. I only did a rough edit so bear that in mind. Normally I don't have to do much unless I get into one of those writing 'moods' where 7 pages just come out of from nowhere and an hour passes by... Ahem, enjoy!

Seeing another approaching after removing itself from the cavern wall, Andrew walked forward with his ax still resting on his shoulder. Hoping that description holds true to it promises, if not, well, there are worse weapons to use when facing an opponent who is almost completely immune to blades.

As the two neared one another, he swung down his massive battle ax, splitting the rock from its head to pelvis in one swing. While fragments still rained down on the man, it was not nearly as bad it was prior. Watching the two halves fall apart, he waited to test a small theory of his.

No more than three seconds later, the two halves started moving once again, this time separately attacking him from the left and right as soon as they stopped their shaking. With far greater speed than when the two were whole, they approached Andrew who was standing a little too close for comfort.

Jumping backwards, Andrew dodged one rotating arm, only to be hit by another in his chest. Panting while stumbling back he yelled, “fucking rocks! I’m being beaten by a fucking pile of rocks!? How the hell is that possible.”

As he raved almost madly, he swung the ax viciously at the two statues legs, bisecting the two halves even further. As the brown sludge flowed out of the rocks lower calves, the blade on the ax seemed to greedily drink up any remnants of the sludge that still rested on it. If one were to look at the blade closely, instead of relatively clean, battered iron; it now held a light brown hue that seemed to radiate bloodlust. In the monochrome world where the two were fighting, however, such observations would be nearly impossible to tell.

As Andrew, smashed the legs further as a precaution, he heard massive rumbling in the cavern echo deeply throughout the tunnels. Seemingly coming front of him, Andrew was relieved that there was finally a sign he could use, ‘time to find that bloody treasure and leave. Or just leave, at this point I don’t even care which.’

Taryk slowly came from behind, cautiously asking, “Boss are you alright, when you were slashing that rock-man-thing your eyes suddenly lit up. Even if blood red is your colour of choice over the past few days, I don’t think it’s healthy. Either way, do you have another ax like that?” With Taryk lovingly caressing the shaft of the ax, Andrew sighed. While he didn’t like people getting that near to him, with the almost entranced look in the goblin’s eyes, he couldn’t bear to pulled it away.

Finally, after no small time subject to jet-black puppy dog eyes Andrew said, “nah, it was from the panther guy from before - wait, you were playing around with the half dead guys at the time. Anyways, there’s just the one. After we deal with these bloody rocks I’ll give it to you. You may want to grow a bit taller, though… Damn, what level are these guys anyways?”

“Level?” Asked Taryk in puzzlement, however, silence was the only thing he got back in return. Trying again, Taryk questioned, ”Boss, hello?”

Andrew tried to play are with the systems’s [identify] feature, looking at the brown sludge that leaked from the rocky inukshuk shells. Unfortunately, whether it was the liquid itself, or the rocks that it was once composed of, he couldn’t find any trace of a level or description when it was already deceased.

‘Realism, or some such non-sense, I’d imagine.’ Gathering his wits and moving forward he called the still somewhat expectant looking goblin. As they walked toward the previous disconcerting sound Andrew describe the basics of what could be known collectively as the [system]. While it wouldn’t affect the goblin all that much in the future, it still acted as a minor reprieve from the tediousness of walking forward, in the pitch black, endlessly in relative silence.

As they advanced further and further into the cave system, they did encounter a small number of the inukshuk statues, but their number never did exceed one or two. It was primarily when they strayed from the centre of the tunnel, however, separate occurrences of course did happen when they least expected it.

With the increasing creaking and rumbling that consistently echoed throughout the cave, there was no clear sign of the statues arrival. This, naturally, gifted the two with even more bruises and scrapes on their already abused bodies out of their negligence and inability to hear or see the statues approach.

It was around this time that Andrew finally got the answer he was looking for.

Animated Northern Golem

Level 14

Description: With a body that puts most armor to shame, these brutes know little else than attacking their opponents head on. With no forethought and planning these creatures are known for their quick approaches and ability to phase through certain minerals. Should one fight these golems in a mountainous or rocky terrain be prepared for sudden reinforcements coming through the walls, ceiling, or bedrock. As a peculiarity in their design, these golems cannot attack individuals in groups larger than two individuals. Instinctively they will avoid these confrontations, however, they been known to decapitate their own in special cases, however, this is usually not much of an issue for these creatures.

“Damn it all, I really shouldn’t have checked it out,” laughed Andrew derisively.

Due to Andrew being out-of-sorts with the occasional ambushes, he failed to notice that each of them had gained levels over the consistent encounters of ambushing inukshuks. Andrew gained three, whereas Taryk gained five catching up to the human.

“Hey, I’ll make sure you are stronger, can see more, and that it will, well, hopefully hurt less getting hit. But beyond that did what something else, faster maybe, or do you trust me?”

“First three sound good. So long as I can shove this spiked mace up a few of their rocky ass holes, I’m happy,” spoke the exasperated Taryk, causing Andrew to be slightly fearful over the future with this goblin at his side. However, as he saw it, it was an issue for another day.

As it stood, Andrew put three points in each of the previously mentioned stats; strength, endurance, and perception for himself. And for Taryk, he placed four into each with three going into agility because of the goblins indifference to the matter. With a spine chilling noise emitted from their bodies, the two stretched lightly before continuing - nearly blindly - deeper into the tunnel.

In hopes of finding the way out as soon as possible they stayed as near to the centre as they could. When they were in a tunnel that’s radius was wider than even their line of vision, it was no easy feat, but it was somewhat manageable with Andrew’s ax and Taryk’s mace to clear the way.

It took another half an hour before the two could find what they were looking for. The tunnels grew smaller every step they took over the last half an hour, leading the two to a few skirmishes that could have been otherwise avoided, which unfortunately for the two, broke Taryk’s original Morningstar. However, it was worth it to the two as they both exhaled a long awaited sigh of relief.

“He said the right side, hey?” Spoke Andrew as he excitedly lifted his massive ax in a small ‘hurrah’ motion.

“Don’t remember. I’m hungry…” complained the goblin, who dragged his weary feet towards the right side nearly automatically.

“Okay well, you ate more than me, you are smaller than me, and have been fighting less. Please don’t remind me, you bloody glutton,” muttered the now annoyed Andrew, whose mood was entirely ruined by the one simple comment.

It wasn’t like it was the first time he heard it, but to him the situation called for a different response. Certainly nothing about their lack of food. It was mostly a matter of spending too much time with Taryk and it led to a point where his usual mercurial temperament was becoming even more volatile.

Ignoring the goblin who was almost at a point where he himself was a puppet like those inukshuk statues, Andrew continued to the right tunnel. As per the man’s instructions, as soon as he considered himself ‘in’ the tunnel, he walked forward about five feet before carefully examining the wall in front of him. With the omnipresent darkness surrounding the two, Andrew had to stay about two feet to the wall to be able to see any detail at all.

While the wall directly in front didn’t show any signs of a potential short cut to the supposed vault, a foot further into the tunnel, Andrew saw what he thought to be the answer. Feeling somewhat confused and greatly concerned he paced back and forth in front of the crack. Earning him an inquisitive look from Taryk, whom was ignored completely as Andrew immersed himself in thought:

‘So, this passage is only about a foot wide and looks like something like a crack from an earthquake. But even with its jagged edges and twisting seams, it seems too suspicious.’

Testing the rock wall, Andrew pressed his hand directly onto the rocks surface of the passage and waited. No more than two seconds later, a pair of stubby stone arms forged themselves out of the rock wall and began viciously smashing the point.

‘I’d rather not chance it, being smashed to a pulp doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, but I wonder…’ mused Andrew, with a dangerous expression on his face. Ignoring the two arms still battering the stone, he lightly tapped the spot immediately to the side of one of the still moving arms, opening and closing like the wall was its hinges.

As the second second passed, another set of arms appeared from the wall. On the exact spot which was battered directly before, appeared a set of arms. One of which was promptly destroyed leaking a brown sludge before it could even have a chance to move, the other which was still operational, smashed down onto the arm of the first set as it raised itself, resulting in a cloud of dust that choked Andrew who was standing far too close.

After a small coughing fit, during which he actually spat up some of the brown sludge fit in amongst the debris, he measured the distance in his head from which the two arms appeared the first time. With that in mind, he withdrew a spear.

With the ax in one hand, should the worst happen, and the spear in the other, he tapped the two original locations with the spear tip once more. When nothing happened, he moved onto a spot a little further from the two - weaving the spear past the still moving arm on the far side. Again another set was created, the original pair was now gone and two stragglers still were left. Raising his ax, he severed the two at the base of the wall and prodded the area.

Even with his hands nothing came out of it, either above or below. Though the path was still too tight to wiggle his way through with a two second delay, he found a way he could slowly advance.

Tedious, but safe. Or as far as Andrew was concerned.

Tapping the other side of the wall in about six inch increments with the longer reaching spear, he stepped back. After the dust cleared all but the arms on the immediate ends were destroyed. With a swing of the ax, those too were destroyed. As he tested the corridor he found nothing amiss, so he shimmied his way into the small crevice and repeated the cycle.

While it was extraordinarily difficult to swing the massive ax in such a small environment, he did accomplish his task. Giving up on the spear as the ax worked just as well for his purposes, he tossed it to Taryk who warmly accepted his new beloved treasure. Even though he was only about halfway through the twenty foot long crack, he called for Taryk to follow. Mostly due to the fact that every foot or so he advanced, slashing through the rock hands, Taryk would question him. Though it began as scathing remarks about why someone so large would try to go through the crack in the wall, it eventually became concerned ramblings that caused Andrew no small amount of patience.

With the goblin-elf on his heels - who barely even touched the walls to begin with - he advanced and made it to the final stretch. Swinging his ax one last time, he cleared the last pair of stone arms.

Walking out into an open cavern with some strange glowing rocks embedded into the ceiling, giving them a fair bit of light, the pair was dumbstruck with what they say.

Without any emotion, Andrew muttered, “Oh for fucks sake... I really should’ve just found my way back. Yay, treasure, so exciting ~ fuck that noise...”

Backing away slowly, the two peered at what lay in front of them. Differing from the standard inukshuk puppets they saw before, these seemed to be made from shale in the shape of all manners of races.

In one platoon, it was filled with humans; another, elves. Furthermore, dwarves, hobbits, goblins, beastmen of all sorts and sizes riddled the area. Fur, feathers, scales, or carapaces; all stood on guard with their weapon of choice locked tightly in their grip. There was roughly 500 in total and each seemed to stare at the crack intently.

[Vlad Freeborn the Cursed

Level 11

Description: For decades this man has roamed the world. Never stopping; always in search of new and interesting adventures and exploration. It took like 30 years, however, he got what he wanted.

As he and his party advanced through these very mines, a wicked mage turned those of use into stone. Those that seemed useless were simply incinerated and used in a dark ritual. Though poorly done, it served him well over the last few decades: the cursed as a final guard to his laboratory and those deemed useless who can phase through the very rocks core to form a body to protect his home.

Even though he has long since past, his creations still stand as his final testament. While they are loose from his direct commands, it was instilled into their very core that intruders will be dealt with mercilessly.]

With the last part deviating from the original description on each one he attempt to [identify], he came to the conclusion that each was between level 5-15. Though both Andrew and Taryk were more than capable of killing such opponents, the number was unsettling to say the least.

As the two tried to retreat, a small pulse came from the battle ax Andrew still had leaned against his shoulder. Due to feeling the strange sensation, Andrew momentarily looked up to see the muddy blade of the ax glowing brightly.

Turning his gaze, he sighed loudly, “well, Taryk, we’re probably screwed, it has been nice knowing you.”

Likewise, Taryk replied, “I can’t really say too much about it all, but it has been the first time I really felt alive in a while, so don’t let it bother you. Anyways, lets at least kill a few of them. Give me another mace just in case this one gets stuck in one of these ass holes.”

“Right? That’s exactly how I felt when I came to this world. Well, time period? I don’t even know anymore,” shaking his head he cleared up his thoughts before continuing, “well, if we make it out of this, let’s have our names ring throughout the hearts of all - be it fear, envy, admiration, love, I don’t really care. Lisia, of course, is included in all this. I just want to be remembered, instead of dying in a gutter where no one will even take a second glance.”

With a nod from each, the two stopped their retreat. Pulling the last remaining morningstar and tossing it on the ground behind him. The slate army’s scarlet eyes still followed their every movements as they approached with uniform steps. Out of the ten contingents, one kept their advance where the others stopped in a well-practised motion.

“Humans… only 50 on 2? This one we got, hey Taryk.”

“Yeah, the others will be interesting, but either way let’s go!”

Meeting in the middle with a slow walk between the standing army and the passageway, the two readied their weapons as the contingent did theirs. With the massive ax in his hands, his twin swords at his hip, and spear strapped to his back with a slight repositioning of one of the longer holsters, Andrew called out, “are you sure this enough to take us down? We are pretty strong you know?”

However, the only reply he got was a massive thundering boom when their weapons smashed into the cavern floor - at exactly the same time. Whether it was swords, spears, maces, or staves, each hit the ground at exactly the same time as they marched forward maintaining the noise in perfect rhythm.

Leveling his eye with the opposing leaders, he noticed, to his delight, it was Vlad. While the others may have had slightly higher levels, the contingent as a whole was rather weak. Andrew gave up on conversing with his silent enemy and simply charged.

With appropriate army tactics, a spear wall was placed immediately through the gaps in the shield wielding men, but Andrew merely used the length of the ax itself to cleave through the forward ranks of the contingent. With every swing, he had to dodge the incoming spear thrusts or push back the surging swordsmen.

As if he were dancing on a fine line, he swung the ax in a horizontal slash to clear as many as he could with each blow. Gentle sidesteps and back steps were just about the most he could accomplish whilst wielding such a weapon. Even as the shield bearers raised their shields, swords, and spears to defend, it held no significance to ax who keep flowing through each bisected piece of equipment.

With an ax of that size, while it was extremely efficient in attacking, it had the obvious deficit of being largely unable to defend. With every four or five he cleaved through, he himself was stabbed, slashed, smacked, or hit by one of the opposing sides weapons. It wasn’t until Taryk finally clued into Andrew’s near suicidal charge that he finally came to aid Andrew.

When Taryk helped mitigate some of the pressure, Andrew finally began to shine. As only around half of the number of came his way, he readily dodged and side stepped many of the blows - swinging his ax all the while. Each soldier whose body was pummeled and dismembered covered the floor in pooled brown liquid and black, decaying blood.

Each statue needed only one swing to take out of commision, however, each who fell still grasped onto a small fragment of life. Defiantly attacking the man’s legs with their fallen weapons, each blow tore through his skin covering his body in shallow cuts. But as the rage and bloodlust consumed him, he merely began stomping on the heads of those still crawling while never slowing his ax.

Unlike the other inukshuk statues, after the head collapsed so too did the petrified soldier.

After around three or four minutes of fighting the last of the ‘cursed’ contingent fell.

Trying to catch his breath, Andrew quickly rested his ax on the ground before he began to fiddle with his menu. Unbeknownst to him, the surrounding pools of decayed blood and brown sludge slowly crept up to the ax head. Infusing it with a near demonic aura as the blade began to change.

Compared to the previous plain twin crescent moon styled head, a muddy obsidian metal appeared with vicious curves and spikes. It was no much different than a fleur-de-lis appearing on the head, though the ‘arms’ dragged up and down past symbol, weaving an near interlocking that would be guaranteed to eviscerate those unlucky enough to meet with the cruel weapon.

Due to that fact that Andrew was the one who ended nearly 80% of the group, he gained two levels whereas Taryk only gained the one.

Taryk of the Cleaver Clan

Level 17

Defence Rating: 0

Str: 19

Agi: 18

Per: 16

End: 16 (-1)

Vit: 10

Int: 6

Wis: 6

Chr: 7

Status:

Bleeding: Will continue to lose health unless treated.

Brusing: Endurance will decrease by 1 until treated.

Skill:

Spear Handling (Intermediate 4): Any spear put into your hands is a machination of death and suffering for those that stand before you. However, for those that get within your reach be warned for they can easily spell death towards a careless novice or veteran alike. Bonus 33% damage with all long handled polearm weapons. Increases armor piercing power by 16.5%. Increased chance of bleeding.

Andrew Marks

Level 20

Defense Rating: 19

Poison Resistance 5%

Str: 21 (+1) (+1)

Agi: 26 (+1) (+2) (+1)

Per: 20 (+1) +3

End: 19 (+1) (+1) (-1) (-1)

Vit: 12 (+1)

Int: 9 (+1)

Wis: 8 (+1)

Chr: 9 (+1)

Lck: ? (+1)

Affinity:

(Temporary) Small Poison Affinity: Grants the bearer a small chance of causing poison damage on each blow. If under the influence of a foreign poison or disease, the bearer will gain a slight bonus in recovering from, and bearing with, such an ailment.

Status:

Bleeding: Will continue to lose health until treated.

Bruising: Endurance will decrease by 1 until treated.

Hairline Fracture (Rib Cage): Endurance will decrease by 1 until treated. Increases stress will cause the bone to fracture further.

Skill:

Dual Wielding (Intermediate:1): While wielding two weapons Damage Rating penalty is reduced by 40%. Penalty currently at 10%. Grants easier range of motion and knowledge of advanced techniques are granted at base level up of the skill.

Sword Mastery (Beginner:1): While wielding a bladed weapon, be it single or dual edged, the damage rating will increase by 5%, increases chance to sever limbs by 2%, and attack speed increases by 3%.

Ax Mastery (Beginner:1): While wielding an ax damage rating increasing by 5%, bleeding chance increases by 2%, and attack speed increases by 3%

Improvisation (Beginner: 7): You arm yourself to the teeth before encounter any situation, using any available tactics and weapons in a manner to ensure your survival in this new age. Increases attack rating by 9% for all weapons. Increases hit chance and critical chance by 3.5% for all weapons (be in, physical damage based melee, thrown, or projectile). Spell failure rate decreases by 4.5% and spell duration increases by 4.5%. +1 to all stats including luck.

If a second and third contingent weren’t approaching the two, Andrew would have noticed his new skills. Although likely he would be somewhat content, he would have lost interest in the interacties associated with the topic.

Quickly allocating the stat points into strength, agility, and endurance for the two of them, he simply closed of the window which announced:

Congratulations Andrew! You have advanced to level 20, for this milestone We have granted the players skills tailored to their needs. For those that focused on the military route, we gifted them skills to help in their conquest. For the scholarly types, skills that may benefit them and, in turn, the world. Few players had chose the route of the unknown, also deemed as the mysteries of magic in this world, for them they will have unique skills tailored to their disposition. For good or bad, you are all the future of this world.

Author’s Note:

Spoiler :

Too much magic can be dangerous. M'aiq once had two spells and burned his sweetroll.

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Chapter RSS About the author 3 Fictions 65 Posts 2 Threads Ambush Follow Author Saturday, January 2, 2016 6:58:07 AM Canada Shy Penguin

Bio: Chronic Inability to Finish Stories; CIFS for short. A major affliction that has gripped me in its steely maw for weeks, months, and (shivers) shows no sign of stopping.

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